Apple vs FBI: Apple engineers would rather quit than comply if FBI wins

The solidarity of Apple employees in their fight against the FBI continues to strengthen, with news that Apple’s encryption engineers may quit if the FBI wins the court battle and forces them to decrypt the iPhone 5c belonging to the San Bernardino shooter, Syed Farook.

According to The New York Times, Apple employees have signalled they would rather resign than comply with the government's order to weaken the security of the iPhone software. The Times' sources include Apple engineers engaged in the development of the security of the software, as well as former security engineers of the company.

The US government had secured Farook's iPhone 5c as part of its investigations into the San Bernardino terror attacks in December last year, where Farook was one of two attackers who shot dead 14 people at the Inland Regional Centre in California.

According to the FBI, Farook's iPhone may contain confidential information that will assist with their ongoing investigations, including the names and contact details of extremists and details about other planned attacks. As requested by the Justice Department, a US federal magistrate judge in February ordered Apple to decrypt the iPhone.

Order Compelling Apple to Asst Agents in Search of iPhone by Roberto Baldwin

However, this request was met with resistance by Apple, who opposed the court order. The company's CEO Tim Cook called for a public debate on the matter and posted an open letter on Apple’s official website, saying customers around the country needed "to understand what is at stake".

“The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers,” Cook wrote in the open letter, explaining that the FBI wanted Apple to create a new version of the iPhone operating system, effectively a “backdoor OS” to help decrypt Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone 5c.